By
Maxwell Awumah, GNA
Ho, Sept 26, GNA – An
exclusive publication on the seventh Sustainable Development Goal, entitled
“Goal 17 – Partnership: UNFPA’s approach for transforming Africa and the
world” would be published today, September 26, in New York, during the 74th
Session of the United Nations General Assembly, by the United Nations
Population Fund Regional Office for West and Central Africa, (UNFPA WCARO).
According to its
release copied to the Ghana News Agency, the publication responds to the desire
to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted by
world leaders at the historic United Nations Summit in 2015, including Goal 17:
“Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership
for sustainable development.”
The preface of the
book is co-signed by President Mahamadou Issoufou of the Republic of Niger and
the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed. They
noted that the report highlights efforts by UNFPA and its many partners to
implement SDG 17 in West and Central Africa.
President Mahamadou
Issoufou and Ms. Amina J. Mohammed said “In a region facing profound political,
environmental and other pressures, we can derive both lessons and hope from
this volume’s insights and analysis. It is in the spirit of a shared commitment
to the well-being of the region’s people that we commend this report to a wide
audience in and beyond the continent.”
In 2015, the West
and Central Africa regional office of UNFPA expanded partnerships at all
levels, from community leaders to the largest UN agencies, Heads of State and
Government, First Ladies, research institutions, civil society organisations
and the private sector in Africa and internationally.
The Sustainable
Development Goal number 17, to which this book is devoted, aims to highlight
the importance of partnerships in providing a global response to development
issues.
This book is a true
collective memory that aims to share with a wide audience the experience of the
regional office for West and Central Africa in terms of partnership, and in
particular the harnessing of the demographic dividend.
According to UNFPA
Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Mabingue Ngom, who supervised
the publication, “the publication is the fruit of a collective reflection that
mobilized more than 50 collaborators in some 20 countries.”
“The concept of
partnership is presented in the first chapter, highlighting UNFPA’s flagship
projects, followed by a presentation on the key success factors that enable the
organization, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary, to take stock of the
progress made and the progress still to be made,” Ngom remarked.
In the Afterword,
signed by UNFPA’s Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem, she noted that the
publication was finalized during the event “25 Hours of
Dakar,” Senegal, where African youth had gathered to convey their message
to world leaders ahead of the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, scheduled for Nairobi
from 12 to 14 November 2019.
“The youth have
expressed their vision of the Africa of tomorrow, the Africa of 2063… The
Africa that these young people want; this new Africa that is within our reach,
and without which we will not be able to achieve a better world, would only be
an unfulfilled dream if we do not enter into partnerships.”
This publication
will be useful to a variety of actors, whether they are concerned about
accelerating the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) or moving towards achieving the
SDGs in Africa and elsewhere in the world.
Based in Dakar,
Senegal, UNFPA’s WCARO covers 23 countries – 14 Francophone (Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo – Brazzaville,
Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo); 5
Anglophone (The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia Nigeria and Sierra Leone); 3 Lusophone
(Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome & Principe); and 1 Hispanophone
(Equatorial Guinea).
GNA
